Leader Haughs and Yarrow 1

When Phœbus bright the azure skies

With golden rays enlight'neth,

He makes all nature's beauties rise,

Herbs, trees, and flowers he quick'neth:

Amongst all those he makes his choice,

And with delight goes thorow,

With radiant beams, the silver streams

Of Leader Haughs and Yarrow.

When Aries the day and night

In equal length divideth,

And frosty Saturn takes his flight,

Nae langer he abideth;

Then Flora queen, with mantle green,

Casts off her former sorrow,

And vows to dwell with Ceres' sel',

In Leader Haughs and Yarrow.

Pan, playing on his aiten reed,

And shepherds, him attending,

Do here resort, their flocks to feed,

The hills and haughs commending

With cur and kent, upon the bent,

Sing to the sun, Good-morrow,

And swear nae fields mair pleasures yield,

Than Leader Haughs and Yarrow.

A house there stands on Leader side,

Surmounting my descriving,

With rooms sae rare, and windows fair,

Like Daedalus' contriving:

Men passing by do aften cry,

In sooth it hath no marrow;

It stands as fair on Leader side,

As Newark does on Yarrow.

A mile below, who lists to ride,

Will hear the mavis singing;

Into St. Leonard's banks she bides,

Sweet birks her head owerhinging.

The lint-white loud, and Progne proud,

With tuneful throats and narrow,

Into St. Leonard's banks they sing,

As sweetly as in Yarrow.

The lapwing lilteth ower the lea,

With nimble wing she sporteth;

But vows she'll flee far from the tree

Where Philomel resorteth:

By break of day the lark can say,

I'll bid you a good morrow;

I'll stretch my wing, and, mounting, sing

O'er Leader Haughs and Yarrow.

Park, Wanton-wa's, and Wooden-cleuch,

The East and Wester Mainses,

The wood of Lauder's fair eneuch,

The corns are good in the Blainslies:

There aits are fine, and said by kind,

That if ye search all thorough

Mearns, Buchan, Marr, nane better are

Than Leader Haughs and Yarrow.

In Burn-mill-bog and Whitslaid Shaws

The fearful hare she haunteth;

Brig-haugh and Braidwoodsheil she knaws,

And Chapel wood frequenteth:

Yet, when she irks, to Kaidslie Birks,

She rins, and sighs for sorrow,

That she should leave sweet Leader Haughs,

And cannot win to Yarrow.

What sweeter music wad ye hear,

Than hounds and beagles crying?

The started hare rins hard with fear,

Upon her speed relying:

But yet her strength it fails at length;

Nae bielding can she borrow,

In Sorrowless-fields, Clackmae, or Hags;

And sighs to be in Yarrow.

For Rockwood, Ringwood, Spotty, Shag,

With sight and scent pursue her;

Till, ah, her pith begins to flag;

Nae cunning can rescue her:

Ower dub and dyke, ower sheuch and syke,

She'll rin the fields all thorough,

Till, fail'd, she fa's in Leader Haughs,

And bids fareweel to Yarrow.

Sing Erlington and Cowdenknowes,

Where Humes had anes commanding;

And Drygrange, with the milk-white yowes,

'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing:

The bird that flees through Redpath trees

And Gladswood banks ilk morrow,

May chaunt and sing sweet Leader Haughs

And bonnie howms of Yarrow.

But minstrel Burne cannot assuage

His grief, while life endureth,

To see the changes of his age,

Which fleeting time procureth:

For mony a place stands in hard case,

Where blythe folk kend nae sorrow,

With Humes that dwelt on Leader-side,

And Scotts that dwelt on Yarrow.